“Winx Club” first broke out into the world in 2004 and remains an active franchise in the present. The story revolves mainly around our character Bloom (Letizia Ciampa), and she starts off her journey believing that she is just an ordinary, adopted teenager living on Planet Earth. This is so until she meets Stella (Perla Liberatori), a fairy princess from the planet Solaria when she is in trouble. When Stella is in trouble, Bloom comes to her aid and discovers that she is a fairy as well during the process.

Stella convinces Bloom to join her at Alfea, which is an all-girls college where fairies can learn magic. While Bloom is there, she meets four other fairies, and together they become the Guardian Fairies of the Magic Dimension.

Stella is the Crown Princess of Solaria and is the Fairy of the Shining Sun. Stella was based off of the actress Cameron Diaz and Princess Leia from “Star Wars.”

Bloom later on in the series discovers her birth parents and sees that she is the Fairy of the Dragon Flame and Princess of Domino. Bloom’s character took inspiration from pop singer Britney Spears among others.

Flora (Ilaria Latini) is the Fairy of Nature from Linphea and is introduced third in the series. Flora’s character was directly influenced by the popular Puerto-Rican celebrity Jennifer Lopez.

Musa (Gemma Donati) is the Fairy of Music is the Guardian Fairy of the Kingdom of Melody. Musa is primarily based off of the actress Lucy Liu.

Tecna (Domitilla D’Amico) is the Fairy of Technology and acts as the Guardian Fairy of Zenith. The main source for this character is pop singer Pink.

The main reason that made “Winx Club” so appealing to young girls is because of its diverse main cast and interesting fashion. Most young girls tend to gravitate and look up towards characters that represent them and “Winx Club” accomplishes this. Unlike other popular animated shows that were running during that time, “Winx Club” really represented their audience.

The characters in “Winx Club” also have great fashion that speaks greatly of the time period that it came out. The main characters would be seen wearing beautiful dresses and sparkling costumes that captured the audience. The outfits that the Winx wore were rich and colorful. The characters took fashion risks and most of them worked out. Each of the characters had very unique styles that reflected their unique personalities. Some of the main cast, such as Tecna and Musa, had styles that leaned more towards the tomboy side, while Stella and Flora held more feminine styles.

Unfortunately, the new “Winx Club” reboot has taken a total left turn on this. Not only have they white-washed the majority of the cast, but they also have thrown away the original vibe of the show. “Fate: The Winx Saga” is set to come out Jan. 22, 2021, and the trailer was dropped on Dec.10, 2020. Despite the fact that the show hasn’t even come out yet, the show has already received some major backlash. While the original show was known for vivid colors and trendy outfits, the new “Winx Club” has opted for something much darker. Instead of showing us sparkly and colorful fairies, they have presented us with something resembling more dark and witchy.

[insert link to trailer]

Many have compared “Fate: The Winx Saga” to the popular teen show “Riverdale.” The Princess Blog said, “They took all the angsty teen supernatural tropes and slapped a Winx label onto it, thinking that no one would notice that it looks nothing like Winx.”

Terrible reboots are nothing new. From the terribly boring live-action “Mulan” to the cheap-looking sequel of “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl”, the new “Winx Club” from surface level isn’t something from out of the blue.

Here is a list of complaints that fans have about the “Winx Club” reboot:

First of all, how can you make a show about fairies without any sparkly wings? An argument against this could say that they wanted a more dramatic reveal of the wings in the actual show, but the wings are part of what makes the show. The Princess Blog says, “I suppose you can argue that maybe they didn’t want to reveal the wings in the trailer, but isn’t that the entire point of Winx Club?”

Second of all, what are these characters wearing? As, having said before, the original “Winx Club” was all about bright colors and out of the box outfits, “Fate: The Winx Saga” has chosen outfits we could all find in the closet of our grandma. The colors used are very dark and muted. Children watching the “Winx Club” when it first came out looked up to these characters due to their flashy fashion choices. Screenrant says, “the characters’ styling was a disappointment for fans who grew up admiring the bold fashion choices of the Winx.” You can see the characters being styled in long blue plaid skirts among other truly atrocious articles of clothing. Fans would’ve loved to see some throwback fashion trends from the early 2000s in “Fate: The Winx Saga” or maybe modernize it with cool fashion trends from today.

The main complaint, though, is the choice of casting. “Fate: The Winx Saga” has completely removed the character Tecna and replaced Flora with a new, white character named Terra (Eliot Salt). Overall, the casting choices for Bloom, Layla, and Stella are fine, but the same sentiment cannot be made about the others. While the actress for Layla has been kept black, they did not do the same for the East Asian character Musa or the Latina character Flora. Princess Weekes from The Mary Sue says, “From what I can see from the casting, the character of Flora has been removed, and Musa’s actress, Elisha Applebaum, does not appear to be East Asian. Layla, thankfully, is included and is a dark-skinned woman, but this means that rather than an even split of racial and ethnic diversity among the core six, there is now only one major character of color in the cast.” All of these things combined make it somewhat ironic when the new television show’s creator, Brian Young, says, “It was the most important thing to me that every kid can feel like they see themselves in it.”

Netflix has started a trend of using people’s nostalgia in order to gain popularization and then completely ignoring the source material. The difference between “Cobra Kai”, which is a reboot of “The Karate Kid”, and “Fate: The Winx Saga” is that “Cobra Kai” not only respects the source material but draws from it. “Cobra Kai” constantly makes references and parallels to the original source material. It draws from that 80’s nostalgia, but can also stand on its own two legs. “Fate: The Winx Saga” ignores the source material and completely disrespects the original show’s intent.

Screenrant says, “Instead of a fresh take on an old series, Fate: The Winx Saga was considered a disappointing downgrade that erased characters of color.”

Want to read more? Here are some other articles about the new reboot!

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/dec/10/boys-can-be-fairies-its-the-21st-century-how-fate-the-winx-saga-finds-the-reality-in-fantasy

https://screenrant.com/fate-winx-club-netflix-whitewashing-tone-controversy-explained/

https://www.theprincessblog.org/2020/12/netflix-are-you-kidding-me-right-now.html